KAUFBEUREN: Amid the ruins of a city ravaged by World War II, Karl Haeusgen’s grandfather invented a hydraulic pump he was so proud of that he founded a company to sell it. Back then, there were no revenue projections or five-year growth strategies. The plan was survival: “It was just about grabbing chances,” Haeusgen said.
Seven decades and three generations later, the family business, Hawe Hydraulics, ships some 2,500 parts around the globe. Instead of scrambling for sales, though, Haeusgen must parse the geopolitics of an ever more polarised world.
“A third of my business, if not more, depends on how Biden and Xi get along,” he said. “I sometimes wish I ran a restaurant and didn’t have to care about global politics.”
With China and North America as Hawe’s biggest trade partners, Haeusgen doesn’t have that luxury. As tensions between China and the West rise, Hawe officials are working to hedge the company’s dependence on the huge Chinese market.
